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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to